Tantra in Pynchon's Against the Day Or Buddhism and comedy

[Mark Kohut]

Pynchon is a comic writer....too.

https://twitter.com/skenigsberg/status/860200548414390280

On Thu, May 4, 2017 at 9:03 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Daniel Odier is a renowned scholar of Kashmir Shaivism and Tantra:
>
> http://www.danielodier.com/english/thePath.php
>
> *The Tantric Shivaist Teachings from Kashmir according to the Kaula
> tradition and the Spanda and Pratyabhijna schools*
>
> *Tantra - the expansive way.*
>
> The word "Tantra" comes from the root "tan" which means wide-ranging
> whole.  It also evokes the weave of a fabric.  This mystical path has
> deeply influenced Buddhism and Hinduism, whist retaining the
> characteristics of Shaivism.
>
> On Thu, May 4, 2017 at 3:07 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
>>
>> Two informative books on Tantra in English:
>>
>> David Gordon White: Kiss of the Yogini. "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian
>> Contexts [2003]
>> http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo3617827.html
>>
>> Gavin Flood: The Tantric Body. The Secret Tradition Of Hindu Religion
>> [2006]
>> http://www.ibtauris.com/en/Books/Humanities/Religion%20%20be
>> liefs/Hinduism/The%20Tantric%20Body?menuitem=%7B037F4C0C-
>> 953D-44F2-BE4E-A063CD784946%7D
>>
>> To those interested in a general (primarily ethnographic) introduction to
>> Hinduism in English I recommend the book by --- Axel Michaels: Hinduism:
>> Past and Present [2003], who also contrasts Hinduism with Western
>> religions,  "where the self is preferred to the not-self, and where freedom
>> in the world is more important than liberation from the world."
>> http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7624.html
>>
>> Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
>>
>>
>>
>> Am 04.05.2017 um 04:06 schrieb David Morris:
>>
>> P definitely fits with Tantra, the low road, inclusive of all experience
>> and peoples.
>> Tantra's details were historically kept secret, because it embraced
>> sexual energy as a vehicle of transformation.  Tantra's prime goddess is
>> Kundalini, aka Kali, a very fierce female. She is a kick ass V.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 4:58 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Informative, very, and somehow P's low but inclusive road is " right"
>>> within his vision, IMHO.
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On May 2, 2017, at 10:08 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Tantra is the low road to Zen's high road.  Both reach the goal, but by
>>> very different means. Tantra is inclusive of all experience as vehicles of
>>> real value . Zen is exclusive of all experience's real value, all being
>>> illusion and distraction. Tantra is "wet."  Zen is "dry."  Tantra is body.
>>> Zen is mind.  Historically, Zen was exclusively for men and upper castes.
>>> Tantra was open to all, including women and lower castes. Both are valid
>>> ways to awakening.
>>>
>>> My path is Tantra,
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 8:39 PM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
>>> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> "The noted Quaternionist Dr. V. Ganesh Rao of Calcutta University was
>>>> seeking a gateway to the Ulterior, as he liked to phrase it, having come to
>>>> recognize the wisdom of simply finding silence and allowing Mathematics and
>>>> History to proceed as they would." (p. 130)
>>>>
>>>> https://oak.ucc.nau.edu/jgr6/pynchon_against.htm
>>>>
>>>> John Rothfork: Tantra in Pynchon's *Against the Day*
>>>>
>>>> > ... What Pynchon calls grace seems to be related to what Hindus call
>>>> *rasa* that invites us to *taste* or savor experience rather than
>>>> substituting talk, ideas, and explanations for the experience. (...) The
>>>> answer to the complexities offered by the novel, if we can call it an
>>>> answer, seems to be *rasa,* beauty, or grace ... <
>>>>
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics)
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>
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